FIG. 1 of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0150643 shows a vortex tube. Vortex tubes have been used in some commercial applications, such as spot cooling. However, their use has been limited. This is because vortex tubes have not been able to produce cold fluid efficiently enough to gain widespread commercial acceptance.
The energy transfer tube disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0150643 fixes the efficiency problems that have plagued vortex tubes. The inventor has now surprisingly discovered, through extensive experimentation, that superior performance can be achieved by providing an energy transfer tube with multiple fluid flow generators. The multiple fluid flow generators are provided to create multiple fluid flows inside the tube. More will be said of this later.